T-shirt essay

As a college counselor at an independent school, I am concerned that adoration and devotion are becoming admissions criteria for highly selective universities. This essay and its elevation at a tense moment for high school students emphasize that it’s not enough to meet the stated admissions criteria and be a scholarly person. At a time when admissions rates at highly selective universities are falling to 7% and below, and admissions offices are being asked by their institutions to enlarge the applicant pools, why wouldn’t colleges skew their attention toward qualified applicants who “love” them? Unfortunately for students, they must now convince six, eight, or ten other colleges that they “love” them, too. My suggestion for highly selective college admissions offices is to learn their institutions well, present their offering thoroughly and accurately, and allow the applicant pool come to them freely. The “love” will be implied.

If air traffic controllers believed Flight 11 had been hijacked at 8:13, NORAD
should have been informed immediately, so military planes could be scrambled
to investigate. However, NORAD and the FAA both claimed NORAD was not informed
until 8:40—27 minutes later. [ NORAD,
9/18/01 , AP,
8/12/02 , AP,
8/19/02 , Newsday,
9/10/02 ; one NORAD employee said it took place at 8:31, ABC
News, 9/11/02 ] Indeed, before contacting NORAD, Boston air traffic controllers
watched Flight 11 make an unexpected 100-degree turn and head south toward New
York City [ Christian
Science Monitor, 9/13/01 ], told other controllers of the hijacking at 8:25
[ Guardian,
10/17/01 ], continued to hear highly suspicious dialogue from the cockpit
(such as, “Nobody move, please, we are going back to the airport. Don’t
try to make any stupid moves” ) [ Guardian,
10/17/01 , New
York Times, 10/16/01 ], and even asked the pilots of Flight 175 to scan the
skies for the errant plane. [ Guardian,
10/17/01 , Boston
Globe, 11/23/01 ]